Following an extensive assessment by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), Calvin’s education program has once more achieved accreditation in the state of Michigan.

“We’ve got an amazing team of people committed to the education program,” said Dean of Education James Rooks. “The level of dedication to providing a really meaningful and excellent education for Calvin students is really amazing.”

CAEP formed in 2013 from the merger of the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the two national teacher-preparation program accreditors by which Calvin had previously been accredited.

Rooks, who has now been with the education program for 17 years and through the three distinct accreditation processes, notes that the CAEP process is particularly rigorous and quantitatively oriented.

This past November, CAEP sent a five-person team from other public and private universities to Calvin as part of the evaluation process, who spent two-and-a-half days interviewing faculty, students, alumni, mentor teachers, and local principals.

“They were extremely impressed with what they heard from all these different groups and the deep respect these different groups have for Calvin’s education program, and the growing partnership they feel with us,” said Rooks. “That was a wonderful part of the process.”